Museo Aero Solar made a landing in Toulouse as part of a symposium on the new human era, or “Anthropocene.” The term, from the Greek root anthropo- (ἄνθρωπος ) meaning “human” and -cene meaning “new,” labels our current epoch marked by human activity being the most critical factor shaping Earth’s ecosystems. The term is proposed to be officially adopted by the Geological Society of London. They will make this decision in 2016.

Bruno Latour, philosopher, anthropologist and now Centennial professor at the LSE, London, led a simulation of this geological society discussion and deliberated on the form that a Monument should take marking this decision. Tomás Saraceno participated and Museo Aero Solar performed a landing. Tomás Saraceno’s participation is part of a longer term collaboration between les Abattoirs, Novela and Saraceno, to extend over several years through research in the scientific and industrial “ecosystem” of Toulouse.

Above: Museo Aero Solar in the nave of Les Abattoirs

Tomás Saraceno and Bronislaw Szerszynski discussed Saraceno’s proposal to create an Anthropocene Monument out of Museo Aero Solar, the solar sculpture which flies by capturing the short waves of the sun during the day, and infrared waves from the Earth at night. This lighter-than-air monument will ride thermals, vortices and convection currents, making visible the “shape” of the atmosphere. To stay in the air, the monument will depend on people to follow it, capture it and relaunch it when the sun shines, thus embodying an ethos of care, hospitality and an elemental sensitivity crucial to the potential of a “good” Anthropocene. They discussed how this floating “monument” might also point toward a new way of inhabiting Earth, an imagined, alternative future in which civilization is truly solar powered, but also liberated from Earth’s surface to become airborne; a society held, propelled and continually re-cohered by the intensities of the sun-Earth-air relation; a world of flying solar sculptures aggregating like clouds; a world not of flight paths but of nomadic journeys.

Olivier Michelon, a guide and leader of the exhibition, discussed the project with the Toulouse newspaper La Depeche. He notes that to enter the Museo Aero Solar, a guided tour is required. Encountering it develops in the visitor a new conception of space and energy, both abnormal and powerful. The work is not worth as much for its final form for collective action, technology, and the initiatory journey to the past and the future it offers. Its shape, a sphere, is natural to any object created out of the air. Michelon notes that the Museo is composed of hundreds of plastic bags and various packaging papers, developed through various exhibitions around the world. Its components were collected in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), Isola (Italy), Medellín (Colombia), Lyon (France), Rapperswil (Switzerland), Tirana (Albania), Ein Hawd (Israel), Minneapolis (USA) , Bonames / Kalbach (Germany) Carmignano / Montemurlo (Italy) and Arnsberg (Germany). At each step, visitors cut and taped a plastic bag, selected and donated by them, and perhaps added to it by writing, drawing, or signing it.

Darb 1718, the Egyptian Contemporary Art and Culture Center, serves as a trampoline to advance Egypt’s burgeoning contemporary art movement. Darb does this while also engaging with various social and cultural groups in the Fustat community.

From April 7, 2014 2:00 pm – April 12, 2014 7:00 pm, behind the Hanging Church in Old Fustat, local artists, citizens, guests and children will enable the first Museo Aero Solar landing in Egypt. This landing conforms with Darb 1718’s broad and comprehensive artistic vision that embraces works of largely unseen local artists alongside those of established regional and international artists who have rarely or never exhibited in Egypt, and providing local artists with opportunities for international exposure along with developmental programs that include workshops, debates, films and other educational initiatives.

The Museo also brings attention to the general issues of plastic bages, throwaway culture and sustainability. This connects with other Darb projects such as “Out To Sea“, a project in Egypt focusing on the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile River, that brings the largely invisible impact of plastic consumption to our conscious every day thinking.

Darb was founded by Egyptian visual artist and cultural activist Moataz Nasr.

Hvidovre, a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark, about 10 km southwest of the capital’s center, is well known for its football team, Hvidovre IF, where famous Danish football players such as Peter Schmeichel and Kenneth Brylle have played. It is also the birthplace of the Liverpool defender Daniel Agger and of Thomas Kahlenberg. Well now it is famous for something new: a Museo Aero Solar landing in July, 2013.

The art project was initiated by the new arts council in the city of Hvidovre, which has Charlotte Bagger Brandt as its chairman.

Plastic bags are sold in the market for 1 peso and people are used to wash and reuse them, so we didn’t feel confortable to ask people to bring bags to us, like we usually do with Museo. However, on the floor, in la Habana and on the beach you can find a lot of plastic bags, so we started to clean up the city and wash the bags cuban style.

Benedikte Bjerre

Then we started the workshop in the Cujae, the University of Arquitecture, where we buid up a new Museo, a small one, made out a mix of cuban and european bags, similar to the group of people that worked on it. We worked with students of different ages.